A Decade of Love (Part 1: Nikah)

And so Faz and I have been married for…..TWELVE days now! It literally feels like our wedding was just yesterday. Guess time flies when you’re having fun!

Now that we’re back to the humdrum routines of Singapore life after our honeymoon, I’m experiencing all sorts of withdrawal symptoms. I miss the chaos of last minute errands, the busy chatter of family and friends who came by to help, our gorgeous wedding reception and of course, our freaking amazing Sri Lankan honeymoon.

It all feels like a sweet dream that ended too soon!

Alhamdulillah, God had mercy on us and gave us a wedding that surpassed all our expectations. I didn’t think it was possible, but I have NO major complaints! It’s just indescribable, the feeling you get when you see your years of planning and hard work come to beautiful fruition. Thinking about it makes me want to weep in joy and gratitude.

Having said that, there were still in fact a couple of hiccups before our nikah ceremony on Friday, 25 October 2013, that made us MEGA antsy:

We didn’t know we had to fetch our Kadi — nowhere was this explicitly written or mentioned to us until he called Faz, who was already reaching Assyafaah mosque in Sembawang from Pasir Ris. One of his best men had to make a U-turn and fetch him from Tampines. He did mention in the teleconversation a couple of days prior what time he would be done in Tampines and even gave the address, but he didn’t explicitly ask to be fetched, and so Faz thought it was just for general information so that we could anticipate what time he would be arriving. It was a case of miscommunication, plain and simple.

Faz’s dad, together with the entire entourage travelling by chartered bus, found themselves lost!

When our Kadi finally arrived, I realised my brother, who was to be one of our two witnesses, was missing. My mother managed to contact him, and discovered he had forgotten to bring his IC, so he was on the way back to our place in Woodlands to retrieve it. I blame myself for this because in my business, I forgot to remind him as well. But I have to thank our Kadi for covering up by delivering the nikah sermon first.

Once we overcame these hiccups, Alhamdulillah it was all smooth sailing. My dad gave me away. Both he and Faz were calm and composed, and it was a one shot, one kill.

Some pictures from the nikah that were captured by our freelance photographer friend Zulkifli Abdullah (thank you so much for the quick edit!) which were also played as a slideshow on Saturday’s reception:

I never knew so many people were seated behind me till I turned around! It was a little nerve-wracking, but I had other more worrying things on my mind.Photo credit: Zulkifli Abdullah

After we were done taking photos, we went up to the second floor where our nikah reception was held.

Taken before our nikah. This simple and basic decor was done in part by the mosque and in part by Doulath Wedding Decor. The mosque could’ve provided everything we needed but I wanted a more detailed bridal table set-up, so since I was engaging Doulath Catering, I got their decor team to do it. I also rented matching centrepieces from them for the guest tables.

Bridal table set-up by Doulath Wedding Decor. You can view more of the decor on their facebook page.Source: Doulath Wedding Decor

Nikah DIY projects

I didn’t want to spend on bridal chamber decor services because you’re basically going to have to return all the fixtures, so it was a full-on DIY project. To make things more challenging, once the queen bed went into the room, I didn’t have much space for much else. I had so many things, I didn’t know where to start. My girlfriend Su had to come by and literally tell me step by step what to do! With her help, I managed to throw away a lot of things and stow away stuff in the right places.

The night before the nikah, my bedroom was still not ready. Another close girlfriend, Seri, stayed past 1am and together we fixed my quilt cover, steam-ironed it and vacuumed my room. This was the final result:

I love love love my new room! It’s a total makeover from how my room used to look like (you can see my previous room here). Sad thing is, my room is no longer this clean because all the stuff I chucked into other people’s rooms are now back in my room. And no thanks to 3M adhesive hooks, four of those frames you see on the wall have dropped off. By the way if you’re wondering why the frames are empty, I was too lazy to go find photos (coz I know I’d be very selective about it and take an eternity to choose 8 photos), and thought it’d be more artistic to leave it blank. Hey, use some imagination!

On the morning of the nikah, we also put together these amazing bunga rampai:

These were inspired by Kasai Sayang, but in the end I think mine looked better (haha obviously biased here)! We got the holders (they’re actually tiramisu cups from SKP) ready beforehand and much to my mother’s disgruntlement, we set out for Far East Flora on the morning of the nikah to get the flowers. Su and I were practically squealing when we were putting these together because they were soooooo frickin’ pretty!

Next I’ll be blogging about our Orchidville reception, vendor reviews and our fabulous Sri Lankan honeymoon, but meanwhile if you’re that curious or can’t wait that long, you can browse our official Instagram wedding hashtag, #decadeoflove2013,to see instant snippets of our nikah, our Orchidville reception and our honeymoon!

Congrats dear! Already stalked your wedding pun on ig hahahahha and it is super nice! And hor, i just realize…you look abit like maya karin! Gorgeous! I was so excited to see that you got married on your 10th year! Maybe i also can sebok buat #decadeoflove14 HAHAHAHAHAHA I KID

Haha so many people say that but I really don’t see the resemblance! Anyway thanks for the congrats babe! Eh you dunno hor, I really squeezed my brain to find a hashtag ok….I didn’t want plain ol’ #aidafazwedding. Sigh, first world problems.

congrats aida and fazli on your wedding! you look radiant and happy in the photos! glad the ceremony and reception went well. in the grand scheme of things, the minor hiccups don’t really matter and is part of the expected chaos of a malay wedding. enjoy married life! can’t wait to read your post on your honeymoon =)))

Thanks Shazana! Sure didn’t feel like a minor hiccup at the time though, lol. Oh well, makes for an interesting story to tell the kids! Yeah can’t wait to blog about Sri Lanka! Better do it while events are still fresh on my mind. But first, to sift through that ginormous virtual pile of photos….. You’ll probably see them on Facebook first! :)

W’salam. Thank you so much for the kind words! Unfortunately I’m not too sure if they have such a service. I was only aware that they provided simple decor for the nikah ceremony. I suppose it’s best to enquire with the mosque directly. All the best! :)

Hi babe, i jz came across ur blog. congrats on ur wedding, u look so lovely. anyway, jz wanna check w/ u if your akad nikah is held at the Musolla? while the makan2 is done at the multi purpose hall? based on assyafaah mosque website, there are 2 diff prices for the 2 places – musolla / multi purpose hall. so macam mana tu? apprx hw long(duration) did u book the place for? thanks! :D

Hi Aishah, thanks for dropping by. I believe the locations/prices stated on Assyafaah’s website is for nikah only — meaning you can choose to have your nikah either at the musollah OR the multi-purpose hall. I had mine done at the men’s musollah on the ground floor. For the makan-makan after nikah, I rented separately the foyer area outside the women’s musollah on level 2.

I think I must’ve booked the place about 3 hours or so? But that’s because my parents had invited friends for the makan-makan afterwards, so it was like a mini reception. I suppose if it’s just nikah and a short makan afterwards, 2 hours would probably be enough. Also, you might want to call the mosque directly to check if the info/prices stated on the website are current. :)

W’salam Linda. I spent a bit over a thousand altogether, inclusive of rental of venues, tables and chairs for the reception and the decor done by Doulath. The decor was a very basic one that included chair covers, table cloths, centrepieces for the tables as well as the bridal table. For this I paid less than $500. This price excludes the rental of tables and chairs because the mosque had their own contacts for these. Hope this helps!

Hi dear. It would perhaps be better to check with the mosque directly as my nikah was held there more than two years ago. I heard that they’ve changed some of their policies since then. As for my catering and basic decor, I had engaged Doulath Wedding and Catering Services.